There are many people who have physical difficulty rising out of a sitting position from pieces of furniture. This difficulty is often associated with injury or age. Many devices have been developed to assist people with this task, but a particularly simple, lightweight, and easy to use device is the portable frame provided by Neal U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,232, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference as if set out in its entirety. That device is intended to be used with an article of furniture having a firm edge along a side thereof with a gap between that firm edge and the floor. The device includes a pair of generally horizontal supports each having a rearward aspect adapted to rest on the floor surface and sized to be received through the gap under the article of furniture. The device also includes a pair of spaced-apart vertically oriented handle members coupled to the support members with an upper aspect defining generally horizontally extending handles for grasping by the user. Lower aspects of the handle members are coupled to forward aspects of the supports to define a junction having a generally horizontal portion and a generally vertical portion. When the device is situated with the supports resting on the floor surface under the article of furniture and thus extending through the gap, the handle members extend up in front of the firm edge to locate the handles in position for the person to grasp and obtain leverage to rise from a sitting position on the furniture between the handle members.
Where the gap between the floor surface and the firm edge is small, such as close to the thickness or height of the supports, the device will naturally stabilize against the furniture to provide desired and reliable leverage for the person to lift themselves from the sitting position. Where the gap is much larger, however, stabilization may not occur such that the user might find the device difficult or problematic in use. In the Neal patent, such issues are resolved by provision of brackets associated with the handle members which can be adjusted vertically along the handle members to couple to the firm edge of the article of furniture, thus providing the desired stabilization.
While the device of the Neal patent is quite advantageous, some improvements are desired. By way of example, some may prefer not to use the brackets, especially where there might be concern that the firm edge, or perhaps fabric associated with that edge (such as a wrap or a skirt of upholstery fabric), might be damaged or otherwise adversely affected by the brackets.